Arizona Invites Solar Companies Worldwide to Tap Into Arizona's Booming
Residential Solar Market; Now More Than 600 Solar Related Businesses Are
Scrambling to Meet the Demand
Mar 12 - MARKETWIRE
The Arizona Solar Power Society (http://www.arizonasolarsociety.com)
reports that the residential solar market in Arizona is creating a gold
mine of solar revenue. In the past 18 months, more than 275 residential
solar installation companies have opened shop, hired thousands of
employees and created one of the most promising industries seen in a
decade in Arizona, a state with more sunshine to harvest than anywhere
in North America.
As a result, the Arizona Solar Power Society's membership has grown
significantly and the association now has more than 800 members. The
group has worked diligently to grow its membership through aggressive
business development practices for its members, including large scale
solar industry community outreach programs, solar installation training
programs, solar business planning seminars, and most recently, their
http://www.GoSolarinArizona.com initiative and a roaming series of
Arizona Solar Town Hall Meetings that are being hosted with local cities
and towns that want their residents to create more solar jobs in their
local communities.
"When we began our marketing programs back in January 2009, we heard the
same story over and over: Arizona should be the solar capital of the
world. But no one in the solar industry was really doing much to market
solar to residential and commercial customers," said Robert Hoskins, the
Arizona Solar Power Society's Executive Director. "Most solar
installation companies were small, the industry was fragmented and there
was no real marketing leadership in the solar industry. We decided to
change that by launching a new solar association, the Arizona Solar
Power Society, whose primary focus would be marketing the solar industry
using the same advertising, marketing and public relations strategies
employed by major Fortune 500 companies in other industries."
"We organized a series of very successful solar industry seminars,
industry solar co-operative advertising programs, mini-solar tradeshows,
social networking, and community outreach programs and used strategic
public relations campaigns to raise awareness for these solar events
among residential and commercial customers," Hoskins continued. "These
were new concepts for the existing solar organizations in town, but it
did not take them long to recognize that this type of marketing was very
successful. New solar installation companies quickly recognized that
writing business plans with goals and objectives to aggressively drive
profit margins was a very profitable business model to follow."
One
of the keys to the group's success was a social networking platform,
which allowed the new solar association to grow by using free viral
marketing tools that recruited new members and made it easy to
communicate with its members. Not only do social networking groups
achieve rapid growth, but they also make it easy to plan, market and
conduct community solar events, which were critical in raising the
awareness for solar.
Marketing programs, especially community outreach events, served as a
solar magnet. Not only did they draw solar industry organizations
together and organize them into a joint marketing effort, but they also
gave solar companies and executives a forum to communicate and to
discuss what business strategies are working and which ones were not.
As more and more companies joined the Arizona Solar Power Society, it
became much easier to see the growing solar supply chain and
distribution channels that were now open and ready to move solar
products and services through the sales channel. These distribution
channels made it much easier to source services from other industry
professionals.
In the last audit performed, the Arizona Solar Power Society discovered
that there are more than 350 companies in their membership that are
installing solar electric, solar thermal water heaters and energy
efficiency product and services.
In addition, there are another 250 members that work in ancillary solar
support companies that work for businesses that derive growing revenue
streams by supporting the booming solar industry via financing,
architectural, engineering, manufacturing, legal, real estate, land
development, construction, electrical contracting, builders, auto shops,
insurance, hardware stores, and other types of support services.
And more growth is coming. Another 200 members stated that they are in
the process of taking solar installation training classes, writing
business plans and planning to launch even more solar businesses, which
means Arizona's economy will continue growing, creating jobs and
stimulating economic development.
The association recently received a Request for Proposal (RFP) for a
nationwide solar contract to install 10 megawatts of solar power on each
on more than 72 shopping malls across the United States. These are the
type of deals and business opportunities that the group generates for
its members.
Many say there is strength in numbers. The Arizona Solar Power Society
is proof of that. If the solar association's social networking group was
not in place, there is a very good chance that Arizona State Legislature
would have unknowingly destroyed our entire industry by passing HB2381
and HB2701.
Instead, the group was able to communicate an instant message to over
800 members, which allowed the group to plan an effective communication
strategy, hold a press conference and share important messages with the
Arizona State Legislature regarding the detrimental effects these bills
would have had on the companies and their employees in the Arizona solar
industry. Both bills were withdrawn and the Legislature pledged its
support to the growing solar industry.
We strongly urge solar advocates to join the Arizona Solar Power
Society! Unlike other solar associations that charge you a fee and give
you little in return, our membership is free and we will provide many
different business development and marketing opportunities to help you
grow your business. Please visit http://www.arizonasolarsociety.com or
http://www.GoSolarinArizona.com to become a solar advocate in your
community today!
Contact: Robert Hoskins Executive Director Phone: (602) 326-0940 Email:
Email Contact
SOURCE: Arizona Solar Power Society
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